Friday, May 06, 2005

Friday Funday

Yesterday was craziness, and today was fun too. Busy busy!

Yesterday morning was my job interview. This was one of the strangest interviews I've ever been on. Last Thursday I met the CEO of the company, Dr. Jeffrey Wei, at the SCU job fair (which is strange in and of itself; generally HR or recruiter staff are at the event, not the CEO). I approached the table, read a job description on the table for a MarCom-type job, and said I thought I'd be a good fit and handed him my resume. He read it, said "how about Wednesday at 10" and that was it. He then called on Friday to say he'd been double-booked and could we meet Thursday. No problem. This company makes herbal products for chronic pain - sounds good, right?

Thursday, I get to the building about 10 minutes early. Dr. Wei is out front with a couple people; he says, "oh I'm so hungry, I have to get a burger, so-n-so can you meet with Amy first?" It's 9:50 am, and he needs a burger? and he hasn't taken my interview into account? OK whatever. So I go in the building, there's no reception area, just a receptionist behind a crowded desk and a ton of boxes everywhere. I am ushered into an office where a woman is behind a desk speaking in Chinese, and am told to wait there. Awkward, a little?

Eventually, she leaves and so-n-socomes in (I'm not introduced, I don't get his name, although I introduce myself out front). We talk for a few minutes about the history of the company, created by some biochemists who've reverse engineered Chinese herbal medicine, reproduced them in the lab, and are selling them to Chiropractors, etc. and then he says he's looking for a "classic" marketing person and how does my experience fit. Excuse me? Market segmentation and analysis? This I can do, but I thought this was MarCom/Events (my particular niche)? Can I see a copy of the job description? Haven't seen it in a month, but the job is is all of that too, as he's drawing the Adoption Curve on the back of my resume and asking me what I have to say about it, and have I read, oh what's his name... Jeffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm, I supply for him, yes I have. This place is a marketing mess. Their website looks like something a 9 year old made on GeoCities, and the marketing collateral targeted to patients is so hard to understand and the pictures so off-putting it's scary. I tell him I can put a positive customer-directed face the company so they don't look like quacks, Chiropractor conferences, direct mail, etc.

Off he goes to find Jeffrey or "Sarah", whoever she is. Aha, it's phone lady. She comes in and asks if I have any questions. Uh, yeah. What is your role here? Oh, I'm Jeffrey's wife, I do some of everything. OK, startup, I get it. Do you have a copy of the job description? Mike (aha, so-n-so's name is Mike!) or Jeffrey should have it. Can you walk me through your resume? How much did you make here? How about here? ----- this is the strangest interview I've ever been on ------

Mike comes back in, asks me what my salary expectations are. I give him my range, pretty standard for an MBA, and he says it'll probably be 20K lower, but they're interviewing for the next month so we'll see what happens, and keep in touch. Bye bye. No meeting with the boss. I didn't feel like they thought I wasn't a fit for the position, they just didn't know how to conduct an interview properly. Oh well, if something comes of it, fine, if not, no biggie.

Had lunch with Julia and Jeannine at Su's, then went to Costco (much nicer at 2:30 on a Thursday than 5:30 on a Saturday, but still, there needs to be lines down the aisles because people are clueless about how to drive a cart at Costco) and then to the post office to mail out Mommy's Mother's Day kit. This year I thought ahead! My sisters each contacted me Thursday to see if I wanted to go in with them on something, like usual, but I bowed out. I think Mom will like her package.

I then stayed up waaaaay too late, ok only 2 hours extra, to finish MIL's Flower Basket Shawl. I don't know if I'm allergic after all, I think it's just that my lungs don't like the particles in the air as I work with the alpaca. Not itchy, although I do have a cough that's come out of nowhere.

Today was much more relaxed. Julia mentioned that Nathania, the manager of CommuKNITy, had posted on her blog that they still need staff there. I also needed to go back to the used bookstore nearby to exchange one of the Dark Tower II books for Dark Tower III, so I headed that way and inquired about a job at CommuKNITy. I should have known today was not the day, as Nathania had blogged that she's off to Maryland for the fiber fest, so I'll go back Monday morning and meet with her. What do I put on a resume for her? I've never worked retail, but am a very fast learner, great on computers (now that their PC-based register system is up), great with people, and am a fairly proficient knitter (sweaters, felted items, intarsia, now lace... just haven't done Fair Isle). Will she be concerned that I might only be working there until I find something permanent in my career path or until my knitster-friend's store opens up? (can I talk about it? I haven't but would love to spread the word to fellow knitters). I'll make up a resume over the weekend. Just not sure what will be going on it. Suggestions?

I blocked the Flower Basket Shawl! Wow, it really expands and it really looks like other pictures I've seen. I'm so excited - this is my first real lace project, and it will be ready to take to MIL on Sunday afternoon in SF. However, tonight I really need to do something about THE DESK. Yes, it looms that big and scary to me. I need not be afraid, just file and organize a little. Get in a FlyLady zone and tackle it 15 min at a time. All I really want to do is drink some more lovely Sauvignon Blanc and curl up with Dark Tower III since there's nothing on TV. Baby steps.....

2 Comments:

Why is it that all the knitting stores down South are the ones that need help?! Not that I'd want to work at the ones closer to me, necessarily. I think what you were mentioning to her as experience sounded good. Unless there is a huge rush of people who were retail salespeople at other knitting stores applying, you should be fine.